Crowdfunding Lessons

Sam Raymond, a research analyst and consultant with infoDev, wrote a report “Crowdfunding in Emerging Markets: Lessons from East African Startups” with support from the UK’s Department for International Development, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australian Aid), Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The aim of the paper is to better understand the challenges of crowdfunding in emerging markets, where the crowdfunding market is expected to reach more than $300 million. (That figure represents about 2% of the $16 billion market worldwide.)

The research summarized in the report includes data from interviews carried out by Sherwood Neiss of Crowdfund Capital Advisors. The high level findings include six lessons--some of which will sound all too familiar to small coffee companies--about when, why, and how to launch crowdfunding campaigns, highlighting unanticipated challenges and non-monetary benefits.